Bending Toward Justice - by Christine Schenk (Hardcover)

About the Book

Inside story of the battles between the Vatican and US Catholic bishops over the rampant closings of Catholic parishes in poor and ethnically diverse neighborhoods across the U.S.-and the social justice advocate and canon lawyer Sister Kate Kuenstler who led the fight to keep them open.

Book Synopsis

Bending Toward Justice tells the story of the rampant closings of Catholic parishes across the United States and documents the courageous advocacy of Sr. Kate Kuenstler and hundreds-indeed thousands-of ordinary Catholics whose persistence charted a new course in canon law. Sr. Kuenstler's expertise eventually gave increased leverage to the laity-and their parishes-in the struggle to preserve their parish homes, especially in ethnically diverse and poor neighborhoods. In 2012, after what Catholic pundit Rocco Palmo described as "the most ferocious and bitter parish planning face-off the Stateside church has seen in the last quarter century," Rome ordered Cleveland's Bishop Richard Lennon to re-establish 12 parishes he had wrongly closed and reopen their churches. It was an unprecedented victory. For the first time, Rome ordered a bishop to restore a large number of suppressed parishes as well as reopen their churches. The Vatican powerfully upheld the rights of Catholics in those parishes to have an appropriate voice in determining the future. This book offers an inside view into the wholesale closing of too many vibrant Catholic parishes in too many neighborhoods.

Review Quotes

"This book adds depth and color to the struggles for equality and justice." --Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)

"Bending Toward Justice offers the compelling story Sister Kate Kuenstler, a midwestern U.S. nun who used her training in the Church's legal system (Canon Law) to awaken Catholics-from average churchgoers all the way through the popes-to the rights of lay Catholics. Once again, and with punch, the book raises the question-where would the church be without its sisters? A warm and fitting tribute to Kuenstler as a true leader of the church, the book also promises to inspire Catholics to take ownership of their faith and their parishes as scenes of communal meaning, power, and justice." --John C. Seitz, associate professor at Fordham University; author of No Closure: Catholic Practice and Boston's Parish Shutdowns

"Through the text Bending Toward Justice, Sr Christine Schenk captures well Sr Kate Kuenstler's love for the Church alongside her fight for just treatment of the laity when bishops overstepped. It presents this canon lawyer's walk of the thin line between directness and discretion, criticism of the Church with loving respect, and the unrelenting quest for justice for its faithful when their parishes were threatened by unlawful closure." --Sr Judith Diltz, PHJC, General Superior of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus

"The shift in the demographics of Catholics as well as the changing number of priests to serve as pastors in the decades since the 1960s led to a serious situation of what to do with the many parishes erected in dioceses. Out of necessity, dioceses had to make decisions to close and/or combine parishes. But these decisions often caused loss of identity for the parishioners who held the impacted parishes as a central piece of their lives. A parish is more than property and a pastor. It is where the parishioners are formed and sustained in their faith lives. Decisions to close parishes have to involve the parishioners from the very beginning of the consideration and need to be based on more than what are practical business choices. This text presents well the painful journey of this decision-making and information on how the Church's canon law provides means of recourse for parishioners who experience being left out of the conversation to close their parish. It is well-worth reading." --Lynn Jarrell, OSU, canon lawyer, member of the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville, KY

About the Author

Sister Christine Schenk has worked as a nurse midwife to low-income families, a community organizer, a writer-researcher, and the founding director of an international church reform organization, FutureChurch. Currently she writes an award-winning column for the National Catholic Reporter. Schenk is the author of Crispina and Her Sisters: Women and Authority in Early Christianity (2017), which received first place in the history category from the Catholic Press Association. Her most recent book, To Speak the Truth in Love: A Biography of Sr. Theresa Kane RSM (2019) won first place in biography from The Association of Catholic Publishers and a first place in biography from the Catholic Press Association. She is featured in the award-winning documentary Radical Grace and the 2017 documentary Foreclosing on Faith: America's Church Closing Crisis which documents the pioneering canonical advocacy of the late Sr. Kate Kuenstler, which changed Vatican policy around church closings.